A political earthquake of historic proportions is imminent in Geria Epirus. Electoral support for right-wing and patriotic parties across Europe has risen in a trend that shows no sign of abating but portends a major political shift within 2024 in the upcoming European elections.
A series of economic developments – from rising food and energy costs, caused in part by sanctions against Russia, to rising refugee flows – most recently from Ukraine as a result of NATO’s proxy war against it of Russia- have pushed the shift of party systems to the right of the political spectrum.
Geert Wilders, a staunchly anti-European and anti-immigration Dutch politician who has called for an end to aid to Ukraine, is the latest right-wing politician to voice the wave of popular discontent sweeping Europe.
Wilders won comfortably over his rivals, the initial tally showed after the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands on 22 November. After the four successive governments of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, exit polls showed that Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) will be the largest group in the next parliament.
According to the Ipsos poll, Wilders’ Freedom Party won the most seats – 35, followed by the Greens-Labor alliance, led by Frans Timmermans, with 25 seats.
The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius, received 24 seats, according to the exit poll.
Mark Rutte announced his resignation after the governing coalition failed to agree on measures to curb the influx of asylum seekers after a long series of consultations.
Later, the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation (NOS) reported that Rutte submitted the resignation of his government to the king. The Electoral Council of the Netherlands has announced that new parliamentary elections in the country may be held in mid-November.
As Geert Wilders addressed cheering supporters in a reaction to the exit poll results, the PVV leader declared: “No party can ignore us anymore since we have 35 seats.” He characteristically added: “The hope of the Dutch people is that they will get their country back.”
Prominent figures across Europe, from France’s Marine Le Pen to Hungary’s Viktor Orban, rushed to congratulate Wilders.
Le Pen, France’s leading right-wing figure, took to social media platform X to congratulate Wilders and the PVV “for their spectacular performance in the parliamentary elections which confirm the growing commitment to the defense of national identities”.
The president of the Assemblée Nationale (National Rally) party’s parliamentary faction added that “It is because there are people who refuse to see the national torch go out that hope for change remains alive in Europe.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reacted triumphantly on Wednesday 23 November 2023 also to Wilders’ victory.
Ties between Budapest and Brussels have been strained of late, with Hungary repeatedly voicing its protest against the EU’s “blank cheques” in Kiev. Orban proclaimed on Platform X that “the winds of change are here.” One place that will certainly not be happy about Wilders’ victory is Kiev.
Aid to Ukraine
Amid growing “Ukraine fatigue” across the West due to the growing burden of supporting the regime with arms and finances, Wilders has repeatedly called for an end to aid to Kiev, saying the weapons should be used to defend the country of.
He has also railed in the past against what he has described as “hysterical Russophobia” permeating Europe.
Geert Wilders traveled to Moscow in 2017 and met senior Russian officials in the State Duma, wearing a Netherlands-Russia pin on his lapel. He said Russia and the Netherlands shared many common interests and condemned some politicians, whom he did not name, for spreading “false images of enmity”.
It should be noted that under Mark Rutte, the Netherlands has committed to sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine in 2024 and is leading the European effort to train Ukrainian pilots.
The immigration issue
The 60-year-old politician embraces a stance on immigration that he has highlighted as a key issue for decades. Geert Wilders at the end of his election campaign focused on the growing economic woes, pledged to tackle inflation, solve the housing crisis and called for the Netherlands to withdraw from its international obligations on climate change.
Some of his proposed measures include restoring Dutch border controls, ensuring the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants and reintroducing work permits for workers within the EU. According to his party’s manifesto, the Netherlands “has been seriously weakened by ongoing tsunami of asylum seekers and mass immigration”. Another signature Wilders proposal is to hold a binding referendum on leaving the European Union.
Europe’s turn to the right
It is possible to imagine the headlines describing Wilders’ victory as a “shock” or “upset”. But if you look at how people have voted across the European continent in recent years, the success of the right in the Netherlands reflects a more general attitude.
In France, Marine Le Pen’s party recently topped an IFOP poll for next year’s European elections, securing, for now, a comfortable lead over President Emmanuel Macron’s party. The French leader’s support for Ukraine, fueling NATO’s “by proxy” war against Russia, has been consistently accused by the country’s right-wing politicians, including Le Pen, of escalating a European war, while issuing stark warnings of a possible direct conflict with Russia.
In Italy last year, Giorgia Meloni won power for her right-wing party Brothers of Italy. Also facing a worsening migration crisis, Italy will take “extraordinary measures” to deal with an influx of illegal immigrants that has become unbearable for the country this year, the prime minister said. Meloni lamented that Italy was “left alone” to deal with the migrant crisis.
In Germany, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) boasts more support than any of the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s crumbling coalition. In German elections in the southern state of Bavaria and western Hesse in October, the anti-immigrant AfD made electoral gains, showing its growing appeal beyond traditional strongholds. “Hesse and Bavaria is a sign that the AfD can build on solid ground in western Germany as it has done in the east. The reason for this is widespread fatigue with immigration policy,” wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.
In addition, Germany’s economy is in dire straits, facing further economic decline and deindustrialization, and is expected to perform the worst among the G7 countries this year.
Heavily industrialized Germany has been hit harder than other EU members by sanctions on Russian gas, oil and coal imports imposed over the Ukraine crisis, as well as the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
In addition, tens of thousands of Ukrainians who moved to Germany after the conflict escalated have become a “sore” on Berlin’s public finances, Gunnar Beck, a member of the European Parliament for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), said earlier. Only a relatively small portion of them found work in their new host country, with many Ukrainian immigrants seemingly content to simply collect welfare benefits.
Even Slovakia follows the trend of the rise of patriotic parties. The new government, led by anti-EU Prime Minister Robert Fico, received a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday 21 November 2023.
Fico, who became prime minister after his Smer, or Direction, party won Slovakia’s parliamentary election on September 30, has also pledged to end the country’s military aid to Ukraine and reduce immigration.
“We support humanitarian and political aid to Ukraine — that will be the official policy of my cabinet. We will not supply Ukraine with any weapons,” Fico said during a meeting with lawmakers last month.
Given the worsening economic and social conditions that will intensify social discontent, the next European elections portend a political earthquake for Europe.
